Reassigned
by Misty Day
Summary: Pre-LA. Snake returns from a mission, visits his old partner and discovers a secret.


Reassigned

Megan leaned into the door to her apartment, twisting the key hard enough to break it. She swore quietly, intending to call her landlord as soon as she was finished eating. It was the middle of summer and she was sweating, pausing her efforts a moment to push a strand of hair behind her ear. Her auburn hair was nearly touching her shoulders now, the longest it had been in years. The girl had been too busy lately to get a haircut, not that it mattered. She had been reassigned for the next year, and her desk job didn't require her to keep her hair short.

The lock finally turned and she stepped inside. Megan threw her keys into the glass bowl by the door and set aside the many bags she had brought in from her car. Stepping out of her flip flops she arched her back, which had been aching terribly as of late. The feeling of the cool tile under her feet was comforting. She walked to the living room and opened the patio door. The sun was only just beginning to set, the horizon a beautiful mix of orange and lavender. While everything around Megan was beautiful and calming her mind and heart were a swirling storm of confusion. She couldn't change anything, no real point in worrying, but still…

She made her way to the kitchen, trying to decide what to make when a familiar voice startled her near to the point of screaming. Her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest but only for a short time. After thirty seconds she was calm again, her soldier instinct taking over.

"You're getting soft, Mad," his voice rasped, voice gravelly and low. "Can't believe you didn't smell me as soon as you opened the door."

Megan said nothing, only crossed her arms and leaned into the doorframe.

"That desk job taking the fight out of you?" he asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I was reassigned a few months ago," she replied, struggling to keep the anger out of her voice though her blood was near to boiling. "It wasn't my choice."

"No control, huh?" he asked. "That sounds about like you."

"What do you want, Snake?"

Snake shrugged. "Can't an old friend stop by and say hi every once in a while?"

"You are a lot of things," Megan said, taking a few steps toward him. "But I wouldn't go so far as to say you're my friend."

Snake took his gaze from her for a second to pull a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

"Go out on the deck if you're going to do that," the girl said before he got a chance to light up.

Snake shot her a confused look. "You smoke."

"Not anymore; quit three months ago."

Rather than stepping out he put the smokes away. He pushed the chair across from him out with his foot, gesturing for her to sit down.

"I'd rather stand, I've been sitting a lot today. Lots of driving," she explained, though he was sure she just didn't want to get close to him. He shrugged again and put his boots in the chair, crossing his legs at the ankle.

"I know."

"I know that you know. I saw you following me."

Plissken was quiet for a moment before retorting, "So, lost your famous sense of smell but still remember how to notice when someone is tracking you?"

Megan laughed with a hint of bitterness. "There aren't very many people in the world that look like you, Snake, if any."

He was still wearing the same clothes she'd seen him in earlier, black pants, black thermal shirt and boots. How he wasn't burning up wearing a long sleeve shirt was one of the many mysteries of Snake Plissken. There was a sheen of sweat on his face but his hair was dry.

Truthfully Megan had thought he might show up at her place at some point that day but didn't expect him so soon. She had been lost in thought trying to balance the heavy bags and unlock the door. Perhaps Snake had been right – maybe she was getting a little soft. However, it wasn't entirely her fault.

"You must have been pretty bored if you were following me all day, I didn't do anything interesting," Megan told him.

"I never figured you for sure a girly-girl," Snake said, his lips curling into a smirk. "But you sure did a lot of shopping."

"I hate shopping. I just needed some new clothes."

"Gotta love that office dress code."

Megan ran a hand through her hair in an attempt to compose herself. She needed to get to the root of things. She was hungry and her patience was wearing thin. "What do you want, Plissken?"

"'Want?' Why do I have to want something?" he feigned innocence.

The girl laughed. "Because people are disposable to you, that's why. You wouldn't be here unless you wanted something from me."

"Well, in this instance you're wrong," Snake assured her, though Megan wasn't totally convinced. "I just wanted to find out why you were reassigned. I put in a good word for you after our mission together, no reason for them to make you a pencil-pusher. Why would they take the mighty Lt. Megan Madison, a more than competent field agent, and stick her in an office? Did you fail a psych eval or something?"

There was a long pause. She tugged on the bottom of her oversized shirt and bit her lip. "Or something."

"Sexual harassment?" he joked, though she was not amused.

"Are we talking about me or you?"

"You, Mad. We're talking about what you did wrong to get pulled out of doing missions and get stuck typing all day."

Megan blinked. "Why do you just assume it was something I did wrong?" she asked, putting emphases on the last word.

"Well, who else's fault would it be?"

That was the last straw.

"It would happen to be your fault, Snake," she spat bitterly, pouring contempt on his name. She strode toward him with several large steps and lifted her shirt. "I'm pregnant."

Snake stared at her, his eye wide with disbelief. Her stomach was a bit larger and more rounded. He didn't know what to say. Yes, they had hooked up a few times during their last mission together. It was entirely possible that was she told him was true but at that moment he couldn't accept it. The next comment he made was instantly regretted.

"How do you know it's mine?"

She fought the urge to slap him, knowing that if she really wanted to hurt him it would be must faster to shoot him with the gun she had in the drawer nearby. Megan put her shirt back down.

"Well for starters, the timeline matches up. Second, you're the only guy I've been with in the last sixteen months."

Another pause.

"So, what do you want from me?"

Megan was taken aback. "I don't want anything from you. You're the one who came looking for me, not the other way around."

"So…you're keeping it then?" he questioned.

"Yes, I am," she said, her eyes a mixture of determination and sadness. "My family has agreed to help me with him when I go back to field work."

"Him?"

"Yes, Plissken. Him."

The rush of information was making his head hurt. This was all too much to take in at once.

"Listen," Megan said, crossing the room and standing within touching range of Snake but not touching him. She spoke more calmly now. "I'm not asking for your help or anything, I only told you so you'd stop bothering me about being reassigned. It wasn't my choice and truthfully I don't care for it but I'm making the best of it."

Snake's mind was instantly filled with a mixture of emotions, almost too many to name. Not only was his head full to bursting but the very worst of the emotions, guilt, was weighing heavy on his chest. He felt regret as well, for following her and that his sole reason for doing so was for selfish reasons. And Megan said she didn't need his help, so why did he feel so irresponsible?

"I mean, it's my fault too," the girl continued. "I just figured you were…"

Snake snapped out of his trance and fixed his eye on her. "Figured I was what?"

Megan took a breath, the look on her face revealing that she'd said too much. "That you were…fixed. It's a pretty normal thing for guys your age to have done."

Snake felt oddly insulted. "Guys my age? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, how old are you?"

He had to ponder the matter for a moment. Snake had truthfully done the same with her, assuming she was taking birth control because of her much younger age. "Forty-five."

"It's not unusual for guys your age to have had a vasectomy," Megan answered earnestly. He knew it was true. "I'm just as much to blame as you and I'm not mad. Well, I was but I'm not now. There's no point."

The word 'blame' stung a little but Snake didn't press the issue any further.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, his gravelly voice nearly stifling the words.

Megan put her hand on his back, using her thumb to rub his shoulder. He was starting to sweat. Perhaps it would be best to make a gesture of good will.

"Would you like to stay for dinner? I was going to make something but I recall that you weren't too fond of my cooking."

Snake looked away and then back to her, a small smile on her face. She meant it. He nodded.

Megan ordered some Chinese food and was told it would take about fifteen minutes to arrive.

"A little ironic, don't you think?" Snake asked, smirking.

It took Megan a moment. Their mission months earlier had been in China. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's cheap and they deliver 24 hours a day, usually pretty quick because I live so close."

She walked over to the door where she had set her bags down earlier. He'd been following her and saw her go in a few shops but had no idea what she'd purchased.

"Never figured you for a shopper," he joked again, trying to lighten the mood.

"Well, I needed some new things," Megan told him, pulling a shoebox out of the first bag. She made her explanation a bit silly, also hoping to make the mood in the room more tolerable. "First of all, these lovely sneakers. My delicate condition has lifted the dress code for shoes at my desk job. No more high heels for me."

"High heels? Maybe I should have got a desk job so I could've seen you in them," Snake replied. He instantly imagined what she would look like wearing them and his smile widened.

"Also," she continued, ignoring his joke, "These lovely floral print maternity shirts and these jeans that expand in the waist. Next, I went to the pharmacy and got more prenatal vitamins. And then I went to the doctor's office."

"Yeah, that was the one that concerned me," Snake admitted. Megan had never heard concern in his voice before. "What did they do there?"

"Just a check up."

"Was everything okay?"

"Yeah, fine."

Snake nodded. "Do you have…any pictures yet?"

"Like an ultrasound photo?"

He nodded again.

The young girl got her wallet from her back pocket and pulled the picture out. Snake stared at it for a full minute. His mouth opened slightly a few times but no words came out. A myriad of emotions cycled through him and he was sure she saw every one of them.

"Listen," she began calmly. "My mom doesn't know exactly what I do for a living so she thinks the dad is some guy in England that I know from my 'business trips.' I told my superiors that the father is someone from my hometown. Still, I'd like to name him after you. But he'll have my last name."

"That's fine, Mad," Snake said, vaguely aware that he'd answered her. "I just wish…"

Megan looked at him, wondering what he was about to say. She didn't know it was possible for Snake to have this kind of emotion. She honestly thought he would shrug it all off and leave. She knew they would never be a family in the traditional or even the untraditional sense but that didn't stop her from thinking about it from time to time. A knock at the door startled them both. The girl walked to the door and quickly paid the delivery person. She didn't realize Snake was behind her when she closed the door.

"Let me get that," he said, taking the steaming bag of food from her.

"It's not that heavy," she insisted. Still, she let him put the food boxes on the table and get drinks for both of them. "Sorry there's no beer, I know you like it but I can't have it for a while."

"You like it too," he said, the smirk sneaking back onto his face.

"Yes, I do," she touted. "The darker the better."

"Maybe we should get some sometime, you know, after…"

"That'd be nice," Megan agreed.

The pair ate dinner in comfortable silence. Snake chose not to mention that he noticed her eating more than she used to. He looked across the table at her, noticing that she was just as beautiful as she had been on their last mission. They had worked together only one time before their time in China and he had been unable to get her out of his head afterward. He said nothing of course. They were part of a recon team and had a job to do. The China mission however had been a different story altogether. It was only the two of them, in a crummy hotel room, waiting for days for a crime lord to check. There was little to do except make quiet small talk and sweat from the sweltering heat. Despite their age difference he could see that she was attracted to him, the way women looked at him when he was half the age he was now. It didn't matter to her, and it certainly didn't matter to him that she was twenty years his junior. When it was time to call it a night they retreated to the tiny bed - where they stayed for most of the next four days. They ate together, showered together and indulged each other's fantasies. They gave no thought to what would happen after the mission – if they would ever see each other again, how they would keep in touch or exactly how they would grow to feel about each other.

Snake knew that he couldn't be around. He would be in just as much trouble as she would if their employers found out what had happened. He would continue to go on missions and she eventually would too. Maybe he would work with her again someday. He could only hope that was the case. He'd missed her in the months she'd been away from him, the real reason for his visit. The reassignment had only been an excuse.

After the meal was finished, Snake and Megan sat on the couch in her living room. It was dark now. She wasn't sure what he was about to say when he gripped her hand gently but his action certainly got her attention.

"Before I leave I'm going to write down an address that you can use to contact me if you need me. I know you don't need the money but I'll make an account you can draw from if you have an emergency. You really seem like you've got this all figured out but…if you really need me, I'm here."

Megan's chest contracted. She hadn't expected that. True, she didn't need the money. The work they did paid very well. The girl knew she would send him pictures from time to time in the future, knowing he would want her to but would never ask. She gestured to the notebook on the coffee table and Snake scribbled a down the address for a PO box. Megan took the ultrasound photo and wrote something on the back that he couldn't quite see and handed it to him.

"You can keep that, it's a photocopy so I have another," she said quietly.

"Thanks."

It seemed there were a million things they wanted to say to each other that neither could get out. It was possible they would never see each other again but both hoped that wasn't the case.

"I can't stay much longer, I'm flying out tonight."

"I'd ask where but I'm sure it's confidential."

She was right. He couldn't tell her. Still, he wanted to tell her something.

"I'll be back in three weeks, I can call you then," Snake offered.

"Sure. I should have another picture by then."

Snake nodded, guilt tearing him apart on the inside. He stood and turned, offering both hands to help her up. The girl struggled a moment before getting to her feet. Plissken held her hand all the way to her front door, at which point he pulled her into a deep embrace. Without her shoes she was much smaller than him. She could feel the muscles in his chest through his shirt. One hand was on her back and the other threaded into her hair. Megan melted into him, allowing herself to enjoy the pleasure of his touch and presence one more time. He pulled back and, looking deep into her eyes, carefully placed a hand on her stomach and gave her a slow, deep kiss. Megan returned the kiss vigorously, pouring into it every ounce of unrequited passion that had been building in the long months they had been apart. His lips were just as soft as she remembered. When the kiss ended, he looked at her another long moment before leaving without another word.

Snake walked to the end of the hall and sighed. He needed a moment to collect himself. He stared at the photograph a moment before turning it over to see what Megan had written on the back.

"S.D. Madison"

Snake exited the hallway, hoping that one day he could return to stay.


End file.
